## Facts

- A birthday celebration occurred at a restaurant in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where Robert Louis Oates, III and Roderick Giles were present but not part of the party.
- A fight broke out inside the restaurant between Oates and Giles and several party guests; Patrick Stanford fought with both defendants and suffered serious facial injury during the initial altercation.
- The conflict moved to the parking lot in the early morning hours, where threats and renewed fighting continued between the opposing groups.
- A bystander observed two attackers acting together against Stanford, including holding, striking, and kicking after Stanford fell.
- Stanford was fatally stabbed during the parking-lot brawl.
- The State alleged Giles delivered the fatal stab and that Oates aided and abetted the assault leading to the homicide.
- In a joint jury trial, Giles was convicted as a principal in the first degree of second-degree murder, while Oates was convicted as a principal in the second degree of involuntary manslaughter based on a lesser culpable mental state.

## Issues

1. Whether verdicts are legally impermissible when, in a joint trial for a single homicide, the principal in the first degree is convicted of second-degree murder and the principal in the second degree is convicted only of manslaughter.
2. Whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury that it could convict an aider and abettor of a lesser offense than the offense for which it convicted the principal.

## Decision

- The appellate court held the verdicts were not legally inconsistent merely because the co-defendants were convicted of different grades of homicide.
- The court held the jury instruction permitting conviction of the aider and abettor for a lesser offense than the principal was not erroneous.
- Oates’s involuntary manslaughter conviction was affirmed.

## Legal Principles

- In a joint homicide prosecution, the law does not require co-defendants to be convicted of the same degree of homicide.
- An aider and abettor (principal in the second degree) may be convicted based on the aider’s own participation and mens rea, which may support a lesser homicide grade than that of the actual killer.
- A jury may distinguish participants’ mental states and assign different levels of blameworthiness where supported by the evidence.
- An instruction allowing the jury to consider a lesser unlawful act (such as assault and battery) as the basis for the aider’s liability is permissible when it accurately relates liability to the aider’s own intent and conduct.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed Oates’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, holding that an aider and abettor in a joint homicide trial may properly be convicted of a lesser degree of homicide than the principal when the jury reasonably finds a different mental state and the instructions permit liability to be determined by the aider’s own culpability.


Oates v. State, 97 Md. App. 180, 627 A.2d 555 (Md. Ct. Spec. App. 1993)